“And I thought the mosquitos were bad.”
Robotech: The New Generation #1
Comico The Comic Company (July, 1985)
“The Invid Invasion”
WRITER/EDITOR: Carl Macek
PENCILER: Reggie Byers
INKER: Tom Poston
COLORIST: Kurt Mausert
LETTERER: Bob Pinaha
This is going to be a bit different from your usual Free Comic Inside article, but we’ll get back to reviewing pack-in minicomics next time. This is a special post however because we have a convention panel that actually acknowledges this form of minicomic. Of course, it’s the He-Man and She-Ra fan convention Power-Con hosting this event so that would be the way to do it. Nobody’s doing the Super Powers Collection event at DC FanDome or the Commandrons at Comic-Con.
Entitled “The Masters Of Minicomics”, this panel has artist Larry Houston and coloring Skip Simpson (personally I would have liked one with one of the various writers but the visuals are still part of comic storytelling) discussing their time working on the Mattel minicomics in later years, when the comics reflected the Filmation series rather than the original take on He-Man and friends. Hopefully you’ll find this interesting if you enjoy this article series or just minicomics in general.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Somewhere off-screen Picard is going “Thank goodness it wasn’t me!”.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #10
Marvel/Paramount Comics (October, 1997)
“Lwaxana Troi And The Wedding Of Doom”
WRITERS; Michael Martin & Andy Mangilla
PENCILER: Terry Pallot
INKER: AL Milgrom
COLORIST: John Kalisz
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
EDITOR: Tim Tuohy
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Not every traditional Christmas song and carol translates well to modern musical stylings. Unless your station or streaming channel plays or mixes in more traditional songs it’s possible there will be songs that disappear from the holiday playlist. Frankly I can’t remember the last time I heard “I Saw Three Ships” on the radio outside of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself, when radio stations tend to let their DJs stay home and everything’s automated, or a family gathering (when we’re allowed to have those again) may put a Christmas station on the radio or smart device. Even in the weeks building up I haven’t really heard it.
I really couldn’t find who actually wrote the song, which probably already tells you how old it is. I know it’s a traditional English folk song, the earliest publishing being from the 17th century, that’s undergone a few changes over the years, which may have led to the minor confusion as to what the song is about. As we’ll get to, it may or may not be about actual ships, depending on how well the writer of the version you hear knows Israel geography. I didn’t listen to a whole lot of covers, with the latest version that came up in the search for lyric videos being a live performance by the band Barenaked Ladies, a group of fully-dressed men I usually enjoy…but when they start singing about salad dressing I’m pretty sure they aren’t following any of the traditional lyrics. Hopefully YouTube still have the first video I decided to go with. Of the ones I tested it was the best version.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
“I just asked how your Thanksgiving was.”
Marvel Age: Spider-Man #1 (Free Comic Book Day edition)
Marvel Comics (August, 2004; reprint originally dated May, 2004)
PLOT: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
SCRIPT: Daniel Quantz
LETTERER: Randy Gentile
UDON CHIEF: Erik Ko
ASSISTANT EDITORS: Mackenzie Cadenhead & Nick Lowe
EDITOR: C.B. Cebulski
CONSULTING EDITOR: Ralph Macchio
“Duel To The Death With The Vulture”
ARTIST: Mark Brooks
COLORIST: Danimation with Simon Yeung
“The Uncanny Threat Of The Terrible Tinkerer!”
PENCILER: Jonboy Meyers
INKER: Pat Davidson
COLORIST: Larry Molinar
